March 25, 2023 – United Soccer League Championship (USL) – Louisville City FC News Release
Louisville City FC forward Enoch Mushagalusa (left) vs. El Paso Locomotive FC
(Louisville City FC, Credit: EM Dash Photography)
Louisville City FC welcomed a home-opening record crowd of 10,881 to Lynn Family Stadium on Saturday, and weather cooperated with sunny skies and a high near 60 degrees.
The game itself didn’t follow suit, however, as LouCity suffered a stunning 3-0 defeat to El Paso Locomotive FC.
The boys in purple entered the weekend 2-0 and atop the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference standings. El Paso was 0-3 and at the bottom of the Western Conference table.
This went down as only the third multi-goal home loss for LouCity since Lynn Family Stadium opened in 2020.
“First and foremost, I take full responsibility,” said LouCity’s coach, Danny Cruz. “That was an embarrassing performance, but at the end of the day I have to look at myself and where I need to be better in preparation for the game. They presented how we thought they would, but ultimately it lands on me, so I spoke to the players about having a good reaction.
“That’s all we can do at this point…You can’t change the result. I am embarrassed, though. The turnout tonight was fantastic, and we wanted to put on a better performance. But ultimately we fell way, way short – nowhere near the level of expectation we have here.”
City failed to generate early chances, opening the door to Locomotive FC. The visitors capitalized in the 39th minute when Marc Navarro whipped a cross into the box. It split a pair of players, appeared to shield LouCity goalkeeper Kyle Morton and rolled into the net.
El Paso doubled its lead just before the half, and blustery winds might have played a part as keeper Benny Diaz boomed a goal kick well into LouCity’s final third. Ricardo Zacarias gathered it and rolled in another shot.
Locomotive FC’s third could be chalked up to another error at the back, as an pass intended for a LouCity defender instead landed to Petar Petrovic, who finished the chance.
“Ultimately, we have the talent here to do great things and have great seasons, but that’s a day in and day out thing,” said LouCity defender Sean Totsch. “Just because we won the first two games and they struggled to start the season doesn’t mean they’re going to roll over for us. There was a sense of complacency, and that’s not good enough. That’s not us. That’s not normal, and it’s something where we have to take a…